One sold, One to Buy

The HHT is on. After a rather stressful week waiting for the deal to close on this house, we're ready to take on the stress of another deal. Wooohooo!

Yes, at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, one hour before the conditional offer on this house was to expire, I got the call. All conditions removed, papers signed, house is sold. I actually got goosebumps.

Well, with that event complete, we are now planning and completing paperwork for the HHT. RCMP form 4064 has been completed and signed. We have booked a hotel room, contacted a real estate agent, searched on line for homes in Thompson, made lists, scratched things off lists and we should be ready to hit the road Sunday.

The HHT (House Hunting Trip) is described in the IRP (Integrated Relocation Plan) as a five-day, six-night event in the new detachment destination. We have been allotted two days for travelling each way, although we have been told there are not many hotels between here and Thompson that you would want to stay at with two small children. So we will most likely make the 750-kilometre journey in one day.

I was surprised to learn that flying to Thompson was an option under the IRP. But we have decided a road trip just makes more sense for us. Flying would mean driving in to Winnipeg, leaving a vehicle, travelling by someone else's schedule, getting a rental car in Thompson and so on. In addition, while the wife's flight and my flight would come from the "Core Envelope," the kids' flights would have to come from the "Custom Envelope," and we may need those funds down the road for other things.

I guess I should try to explain, as briefly as possible, the funding envelopes. They are they way we get reimbursed for all of the expenses associated with the sale of our house, the HHT, the purchase of a new house and the move. There are three envelopes - core, custom and personal. The core covers all of the big, unavoidable expenditures; real estate commissions, movers, lawyers, hotel rooms, travel costs and so on. The custom envelope is limited and covers "extras" such as having your kids join you on the HHT, upgrading from a compact rental to a minivan, getting an extra hotel room if needed, extending an HHT if required - that kind of thing. The personal envelope kicks in when all the money is gone from the custom envelope. But, and here's the exciting part, we get to keep all money left over in the personal envelope at the end of the game. So the goal is to avoid using any money from the personal envelope. Any money left in the other two envelopes stays in the RCMP coffers. Fair enough.

In any case, as I said, we've opted to drive, leaving Sunday morning and arriving in Thompson Sunday night. We'll look at houses for a few days, choose a couple and make an offer. Wait for the offer to be accepted or rejected or written back, and so on. We'll return next Saturday. We are trying (desperately) to look upon this as a little vacation, knowing that there will still be a fair bit of work and stress involved. But we're trying.

Anyway, I'm taking the computer on the road, so I should be able to keep you all updated as we go. Wish us luck!